Torment and Reassurance
by reikat
Summary: Eriah is recovering in Windhelm after being shot with a poisoned arrow during a mission with Farkas. Ulfric bears witness to a time when she is vulnerable and learns of the nightmares that plague her. Takes place between Realization and Admittance.


Ulfric was seated in his throne room when a servant came in looking rather worried. "My lord...it's the Dragonborn. She's muttering in her sleep, screaming even. I'm afraid to go in there because she might Shout." the woman said. "I'll take care of it. Thank you for telling me." the Jarl said. He got up and headed for the residential wing of his Palace. Eriah Quintence had come into his care after being poisoned and shot in the shoulder. The odd thing was she was found with a werewolf who had clearly been carrying her. The werewolf had set her down before him and his contingent before taking off. His patrol searched for several hours but it was like the monster had vanished into thin air. They did find members of the Silver Hand werewolf hunting clan clearly brutalized by such a monster. This had been three days ago. Eriah had awoken six hours later, wondering where the werewolf had gone. She had been plagued by nightmares ever since, enough that the palace's residents were convinced Vaermina, Daedric Prince of nightmares, had a hand in it. The only reason Ulfric was required right now was in the event she Shouted. They both could use the Thu'um and he was able to withstand hers better than most people.

When he got to the room where the Dragonborn was being kept, he could hear her through the thick door. He slowly opened the door and peered in. Eriah was clenching the bed covers in her fists and by the light of the fire, Ulfric could see the sheen of sweat on her forehead. She was muttering in her sleep and he caught words like "Falmer" among other things. Whatever she was dreaming about, it clearly got her scared. Fear wasn't something Ulfric associated with the Dragonborn. She was a brave woman who seemed unafraid of anything she faced but seeing her now showed the Jarl she was human like any of them and thus was subjected to fear. Eriah began talking rabidly and it seemed her nightmares had brought Ulfric himself into the picture. The bear of a man frowned. Was this really the work of Vaermina? If so, what was she hoping to accomplish by tormenting the Dragonborn using him as a subject? He sat on the edge of bed beside the woman and set a hand on her shoulder. "Wake up, Dragonborn. You're having a nightmare." he said.

Eriah's eyes flew open and she bolted upright in bed. Her brown eyes found Ulfric's and her terror turned to something akin to relief. "Ulfric." she rasped. Without really thinking about it, her arms went around his waist and she buried her face in his chest. The Jarl cocked an eyebrow before letting his arms come around her in kind. She was clearly shaken by her dreams and needed his physical support. Ulfric would gladly give it because it wasn't often Eriah relied on anyone so to aid her in anyway he could was an honor. "What happened?" he asked. The Dragonborn shivered in spite of the fire's warmth and she ran her wrist over her forehead. "Nightmares. They're getting worse. I swear to Akatosh if Vaermina's turning me into her plaything..." she trailed off. That was a sign of her old self. Ulfric knew Eriah had this open hatred of the Daedric Princes.

The Dragonborn breathed in and sighed. Her overall respect for the Jarl never allowed her to do what she was doing under normal circumstances, despite her long hidden feelings for him. But at this point, she was so rattled that she needed him more than he realized. He made her feel safe again. A curious feeling crept into her heart when that thought crossed her mind, followed quickly by an image of Farkas. He was a close friend and shield-brother in the Companions, the closest thing Skyrim had to a Fighter's Guild. A niggling feeling arose regarding him but she forced it down. She pulled away from Ulfric, blushing a bit. "Sorry. I was out of line." she said, pulling away. "Anything for a friend. You know that. Do you want to talk about what you dreamed?" Ulfric asked. Eriah sighed before pointing at her pack. "The nightmares with the Falmer are nothing new. The first time I came into contact with them was by accident. Scared me to death. The only other thing that scares me more are draugr. This time around, after the Falmer chased me into a corner in some gods-forsaken cave, the nightmares took me back twenty-five years." she said.

Ulfric cocked an eyebrow. He knew her to be thirty years old exactly. What would she have nightmares about that took place in her fifth year? "Can you hand that to me?" she then asked, pointing to her pack. When he did, she dug through it and pulled out the dossier on him. Ever since she broke into the Thalmor Embassy and relieved Elenwen of its ownership, Eriah had kept it on her person ever since. The dossiers on Delphine and Esbern were sitting in her trunk at home in Whiterun but Ulfric's remained a constant presence in her pack. It was through studying it that Eriah came to fall in love with the man sitting near her. "I took this from the Embassy when I broke in while investigating the dragons' return." she said, handing it to him. Ulfric took it, opened it, and started reading it. His expression got dark and he looked at the Dragonborn. "I see. So you know about my past even though it was twenty-five years ago and you've only been in Skyrim for eight months." he said.

"I don't know how much of my knowledge differs from the public's but yes. I kept this on me all this time...to remind me why I fight. My nightmares went from being chased by the Falmer to having me witness the torture you must have endured all those years ago. I don't know why. Maybe it was the wolfsbane, maybe it's the aftereffects of the war, maybe Vaermina does have it out for me...who knows? All I know is that I was being forced to watch as you took everything they ever did to you and I was powerless to stop it. Doesn't even matter if what I saw was really what happened or if it was just conjured up as an idea of what happened after reading the dossier." she said. She leaned her forehead against her fist. "I'm so tired, Ulfric. It's only my commitment to your cause and my greater destiny that's keeping me going right now but I'm just...burned out. Not to mention still ill from the poisoning." she said.

Ulfric looked from her to the dossier in his hands. He stood up and walked towards the fire. "Wait, what are you doing?" Eriah asked, jumping from the bed and catching his wrist in both hands. "This thing is causing you pain, Dragonborn. You swore an oath to help me win the war we both know is coming from the Thalmor. We proved that Skyrim was strong when we threw the Empire's chains off. I'm beginning to question whether or not you can focus on that if my past is distracting you. I'm going to remove the problem. I need you at your best." he said. He moved towards the fire again but Eriah grabbed a hold of his coat and pulled him back around to face her. "I swear to Talos if you do that, I will walk away from all of this and disappear. This dossier gave me more motivation to end the Empire's rule here than anything else. You burn it, you lose my service and you stand to lose the next war because your Voice is not enough." she said. The Jarl looked in her eyes and saw that familiar dragon fire burning. He was reminded once more that while he was strong in the Voice, she was still beyond him. She was better than him, stronger than him, the picture of power he needed to make the Stormcloaks a more legitimate threat to the Thalmor. Two Voices would make the elves bend. He needed her.

He sighed before he held the dossier up to her. Surprised, Eriah took it back and held it to her chest. "For what it's worth, Dragonborn, if I didn't respect you as much as I do, I wouldn't have given in to you so easily. You're making me go soft at a time I can't afford to be." he said. Eriah just looked down, wondering what he meant by that, but Ulfric placed a hand on her face to make her look at him again. "But you also keep me grounded. For that, I thank you. Now, get some rest. You're safe now. The nightmares shouldn't bother you anymore." he said. Eriah watched as he exited the room. She crawled back into bed and opened the dossier to read it again. _"If only you knew that this book is the reason I'm in love with you. I fight to avenge you in addition to wanting to show the Empire how powerless they are. But as long as I live...you'll never know this side of me."_ she thought. Hiding the dossier under her pillow because she had a sneaking suspicion that Ulfric would try to destroy it while she slept, Eriah sank under the covers and soon drifted off.


End file.
